This invention relates to sandpaper and more particularly to a method and apparatus for producing sandpaper discs of the type including a sandpaper section and a section of a napped fabric secured to the sandpaper section.
Sandpaper is in widespread usage in industry whenever an abrasive action must be performed with respect to a material such as wood, steel or plastic. Typically the abrasive action is performed by attaching the sandpaper to a sanding device such as a rotary or reciprocating sander. In order to facilitate the replacement of a worn section of sandpaper with a fresh sandpaper section, it has become common practice to secure the sandpaper to the sander utilizing a hook and loop type fastener commonly known as a Velcro fastener and, specifically, it has become common practice to secure a hooked Velcro member to the sander and then secure a looped fabric to the smooth paper back of the sandpaper so that the sandpaper sections may be readily secured to and removed from the sander utilizing the hook and loop type fasteners provided by the Velcro member on the sander and the looped fabric member secured to the sandpaper. Various methods and apparatus have been proposed for the manufacture of the laminated sandpaper discs. These methods and apparatus have not been totally satisfactory since they have involved messy and environmentally derogatory procedures and since they have been relatively slow and inefficient with the result that the cost of producing the laminated sandpaper discs has been relatively high.